MARKING THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATOMIC BOMBINGS OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI (Scholarships available)

Join us for this national gathering marking the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and offer Campaign of Non-Violence promoters and others with significant opportunities to deepen the vision and practice of nonviolent change.

Social Action & Science

Being With DyingThis Professional Training Program for Clinicians in Compassionate Care of the Seriously Ill and Dying is fostering a revolution in care of the dying and seriously ill. Clinicians learn essential tools for taking care of dying people with skill and compassion.

ChaplaincyA visionary and comprehensive two-year program for a new kind of chaplaincy to serve individuals, communities, the environment, and the world.

Dear Mother, wherever there is soil, water, rock or air, you are there, nourishing me and giving me life. You are present in every cell of my body... You are more than just my environment. You are nothing less than myself...I promise to be aware that your health and well-being is my own health and well-being. I know I need to keep this awareness alive in me for us both to be peaceful, happy, healthy, and strong.

EDITOR'S NOTE

On this Earth Day, we recall the way the Buddha touched the earth upon perceiving the morning star, joining with all of life in the moment of her awakening.

In her book The Fruitful Darkness, Roshi Joan Halifax talks about the dharma as a call to “put our ear against the body of the Earth, to listen closely to what is really being said and to consider the consequences of what we are hearing.”

She also talks about the paramitas as Natural Conditions, the way we can connect with who we really are in nature: “These qualities are what we are at our core. When I extend my thinking to include greater nature, I see that the Perfections apply to the whole of creation as well as to the human part. They are true of wilderness. They are true of the stars and true of the empty sky. That is why for generations people have gone to the wilds to find and see their Perfection, their true nature, their inherent goodness, wholesomeness, and simplicity. We also go to the wilderness to see the Perfection of the extended body of creation of which we are a part."

Moving us toward "settling the mind in its natural state," B. Alan Wallace offers clear and precise instructions for this shamatha practice, the subject of his upcoming teachings here in May.

Joshin Brian Byrnes relates the image of the Buddha pointing to both the earth and sky to the Christian idea of Christ embodying natures both "fully human and fully divine," and explores the rich intersections of Buddhist teachings, the archetypes of the Easter story, and that of Passover, in a talk he gave during Holy Week last week. He proposes that each of these represents "the whole works" of their respective traditions.

In a radical reframing of what we usually call the Four Noble Truths, Stephen Batchelor unpacks these Four as "the whole works" of the dharma, presenting them instead to us as Noble Tasks, that invite us to embrace suffering, stop and let go of grasping, and act.

May the wisdom of our true nature shine through our practice this Earth Day, honoring the deep roots of our interconnection.

Áine McCarthy, Editor

Image: The Compassionate Earth Walk

THIS MONTH AT UPAYA

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Dharma Talk, Daily Practice

DHARMA TALK

WEDNESDAY, April 23, 5:30 pm —Shinzan Palma, Timeless Spring

Daily Sitting Practice Schedule: 7:00 am, 12:20 pm, and 5:30 pm. Please arrive five minutes early for sitting periods and events. Park in the East parking lot (Second driveway — the one farther from town.)

Please note these changes to the regular meditation schedule: There will be no midday meditation session April 23-27.

After her three weeks of travel and teaching in Japan, Roshi is enjoying personal retreat at the refuge.

Near the close of her Japan visit, Roshi gave a presentation on her work on compassion in end-of-life care field to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the Mind and Life/Kokoro Institute's meeting. She let us know that she feels extraordinarily grateful for the rare and precious opportunity to have shared her life's work in this setting, and with His Holiness. We have heard from many that the presentation was very well received by His Holiness and the audience.

Roshi then met the next day with a group of Japanese clinicians and caregivers in the end-of-life care field regarding her GRACE model; she and her team will teach the model April 24-26 in Kyoto next year. GRACE will be taught at Upaya early March next year. Early registration is advised.

Roshi will be going into personal retreat at the Refuge for this next week to rest and practice. Check out Roshi's Youtube Channel. This is a work in process, and she is enjoying curating and creating.

We are accepting applications for Upaya's resident program. Please consider joining Roshi, Visiting Teachers, and Upaya for three months or more of dedicated practice and learning. By application, click here.

Roshi as well has a number of papers she has written on compassion. If you wish to receive a copy, please write the office: upaya@upaya.org

For several new videos of interviews with Roshi Joan on Upaya's Blog, click here.

Roshi Joan started a Google+ Community and more than 2000 people have joined so far. Click here to join.

Roshi now has five new books available for sale at Upaya: Four are photography books — "Seeing Inside," "About Face," "Original Face: Unmediated Expressions of Tibet, Nepal, Burma," and "Leaning into the Light." "Lone Mallard" is a book of her haiku. In addition, over a hundred of her remarkable photos are available to look at (and purchase) on Upaya's website:https://www.upaya.org/seeing-inside/

UPAYA'S BLOG

Special Event: Threads of Awakening

Threads of Awakening: Finding (impeccable) Beauty and Meaning One (imperfect) Stitch at a Time: An evening with Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo

Sunday, May 4, 5:30 p.m. in Upaya's Circle of the Way Temple

During this evening, Leslie will speak about the rare Buddhist art of silk applique thangkas. Two of Leslie's thangkas -- Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara) and White Tara -- will be on display in Upaya's zendo from May 1 through May 4.

Settling the Mind in Its Natural State: B. Allan Wallace

I really like two words that relate to the time we'll spend together. For awhile, I was really quite averse to the word "retreat" because it struck me as failure. You can't handle the world, well then, retreat. You just lost a battle, retreat... But I've gotten comfortable with it because a retreat, just looking at the word itself, doesn't necessarily mean failure or you can't handle it, it's rather a time of creative withdrawal into a more simple setting, a context to tap into inner resources to revitalize, to re-envision... There's another word I like a lot though, and that's expedition. So, we're here on a three-day expedition. I'm very keen on that word because of the etymology of it. "Ex" of course means "out;" "ped" refers to "feet." And expedition means, literally, "getting your feet un-stuck from a place where they've gotten trapped." It's extricating yourself from a rut. And so, an expedition...

Let the practice be well-informed... Whenever I lead a retreat, I always teach shamatha. It would be like I'm a chef and I serve up all different types of meals-I teach a wide variety of meditation and theory, but the shamatha is like enzymes, you know, it actually makes all the other teachings digestible so that we can assimilate them... In the Pali canon, in the Buddha's teachings recorded in the Pali language, he emphasized and taught mindfulness of breathing more than any other practice. And allegedly, on the night of his enlightenment, he was practicing mindfulness of breathing, and when he passed away he was practicing mindfulness of breathing. So, that would be a big endorsement by Buddha...

Three Types of Shamatha— #2: "Settling the Mind in its Natural State"

[This] practice is really primarily taught, from my experience, in the Tibetan tradition, especially in the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. It's called by various names; the name I'll stick with is "Settling the Mind in Its Natural State." And what it is: it's a shamatha practice, which means it entails selective focus of attention, and it's designed to enhance attention skills, but now in an immensely rich fashion. And that is what we're attending to in this practice of "settling the mind in its natural state" is the domain of mental experience. So we select out, which is to say, we do not deliberately attend to any sensory input from the five physical senses. They're no longer issues of interest. And we select in just the domain of mental experience, the domain in which discursive thoughts, mental images, and, by the way, dreams! arise because when we're dreaming, our five physical senses have gone dormant, but we're not devoid of experience. What are we experiencing? The domain, the space of the mind, and then some pretty interesting events taking place within that domain, but they're all taking place within one out of six domains of experience. You have the five domains of the visual, the auditory, and so forth, and then that which is left over when all of your five physical senses have gone dormant. That's the mental domain.

And so, it's possible to practice shamatha, selecting not an object like the sensations of the breath or a mental image or what have you, but your object of shamatha, in the practice of "settling the mind in its natural state" is a domain. So, the term samadhi is often translated correctly as "single-pointed attention," but it's an error to think that whenever you're practicing samadhi, that you're now in a tunnel-vision type of approach: the mind has become narrow, tightly focused, exclusive, and maybe uptight. But rather, the point may be a whole domain, maybe a few, and that's exactly what it is in "settling the mind in its natural state." You're attending to a domain, the space of the mind, and whatever mental events arise within that domain.

These excerpts were transcribed from Alan's teachings at Upaya 11 March 2010, "Lucid Dreaming and Dream Yoga" Part 1 of 13. Listen to the podcast of this complete talk here.

Touching the Earth and Sky: Joshin Brian Byrnes

Dogen, for those of you who don't know, is one of our ancestors, the founder of this particular lineage of Zen Buddhism from the 13th century. He was a prolific writer and he wrote many, many beautiful essays that are collected. In the collection of the Shobogenzo, he wrote a little article called Zenki. And I recently took a look at that and noticed that Thomas Clearly, a Zen teacher, had translated "Zenki" in a really interesting way, in a way I kind of like. He translates it as "the whole works," like when you go get a hot dog on the place down on Cerrillos and you say, "gimme the works."

It's everything, it's all in, the whole works, everything is in; nothing left out. Dogen says, "Life is the manifestation of the whole works. Death, too, is the manifestation of the whole works. Investigate this deeply." Touching Earth and sky, fully human, fully divine, "the whole works"-it's all in. And I think the story of Passover, which we're going to explore a little bit, the story of Easter, and the core tenet of our Buddhist practice, the Four Ennobling truths all share something in common: they are each the whole works. They are the whole of the covenant. The Passover story: the whole of the covenant that God makes himself and his people. In the crucifixion story and the Resurrection story, it is the whole of salvation history. The whole of salvation history, right in that story-the whole works. And in the Four Ennobling Truths, we have the whole of the dharma, just right there. So, immediately, right out of the gate here, we begin to see there's some commonality that they each represent, in their own way, this microcosm of the entire teaching of each of those traditions.

...At this point in my life, I'm rediscovering some of the Christian wisdom tradition...When I go back, I often go back through the lens of our dear friend Thomas Merton, who, many of you know, was a Trappist monk, and also a Zen Buddhist practitioner, especially toward the end of his life. He is someone who was able to really kind of trace the wisdom thread through those traditions, and so I feel connected to him in a way because of that because of his own rediscovery, really, of Christianity later in his life. Even though he was a priest and a monk, he struggled, he doubted his Christianity quite a bit, and it was, in some ways, Zen Buddhism that helped him see it again in a new way. Toward the end of his life, he was becoming friends with D.T. Suzuki, one of the great teachers of Buddhism here in the United States. And he wrote a letter to D.T. Suzuki introducing himself, and, if you don't mind, I'll read to you a little bit of that letter. He says, "It seems to me that Zen is the very atmosphere of the gospels. And the gospels are bursting with Zen. It is the proper climate," he says, "for any monk, no matter what kind of monk he may be. If I could not breathe Zen, I would probably die of spiritual asphyxiation. But I still don't know what Zen is. It doesn't matter. I don't know what the air is either." Beautiful. And then, he wrote a lovely book toward the end of his life called Zen and the Birds of Appetite. It's a book I highly recommend, it's short and it's quite lovely and he looks at the relationship, in it, between Zen and Christian mysticism, a very interesting relationship. And there he goes right to the heart of the Easter mystery and to the Four Ennobling Truths. He says, "Both Christianity and Buddhism show that suffering remains inexplicable. Most of all, for the person who attempts to explain it in order to evade it, or who thinks explanation itself is an escape. Suffering is not a "problem" as if it were something we could stand outside and control. Suffering," he says, "as both Christianity and Buddhism see, each in its own way, is part of our very ego-identity and empirical existence. And the only thing to do about it,"-I love this line-"the only thing to do about it is plunge right into the middle of contradiction and confusion in order to be transformed by what Zen calls "the Great Death" and Christianity calls "dying and rising with Christ."

These excerpts were transcribed from Joshin's talk at Upaya April 16, 2014.

The Four Noble Tasks: Stephen Batchelor

Now when you actually read the text itself, the first sermon, you find that it concludes, not with an affirmation of the Four Noble Truths, but the Buddha states, and I'm quoting from memory: "It was not until my knowledge and vision was entirely clear about the twelve aspects of these Four, that I could consider myself to have achieved a peerless awakening in this world." And when he explains what the twelve aspects of these Four are, it turns out that each of these points-dukkha, samudaya, nirodha; magga- are tasks to be recognized, to be performed, and to be accomplished. So, rather than Four Noble Truths, we have Four Noble Tasks. And that makes all the difference.

As soon as you make that paradigmatic shift from Truth to Task everything changes. You're no longer in the business of persuading people that life is suffering. It's curious that Christians and Buddhists share a similar problem here, in a totally different way. Buddhists believe that everything is suffering, Christians believe that God is Good, and both then have to or have spilled gallons of ink trying to show how that's true. Buddhists have to explain why people are sometimes terribly happy-they experience great joy without meditating or anything. And, of course, the answer will be well, they're not really happy. No, no, no-real happiness is really something quite different and we happen to have the way to attain it. And then Christians have to somehow explain how an all-good and loving God can create a world in which there is so much misery. It's called the theological discipline of theodicy, justifying God's creating a world that is obviously imperfect. In both cases, Buddhists and Christians then get stuck in trying to prove themselves to be right. And, I think, in doing so, they both totally miss the point. I can't comment on Christianity-let's stick with Buddhism.

Whereas if you think of dukkha, suffering, not as an element within a proposition, "Life is suffering," but as a task to be performed and the task in this case, as the Buddha says quite clearly... dukkha is to be fully understood, dukkha is to be embraced, dukkha is to be accepted in a deep, calm, insightful way. Craving is not something that has to be proven to be the origin of dukkha, which again is theologically, a very difficult one to understand what that means. But rather, craving is to be let go of. It becomes a task: when craving arises, grasping, fear, attachment, when these things arise, the task is somehow to let that go. When you experience moments in which that movement of attachment and grasping and so forth has come to a stop-and again, this is not some remote experience that we'll only achieve after years or lifetimes of meditation. When you experience the stopping of grasping within your own heart and mind, that is to be experienced fully. And when the path, when a way of life, begins to open up that's not premised on craving or attachment or fear or wanting, then that path is to be cultivated. That's the task that is suggested by the Buddha.

So you have, in other words, Four Tasks, and we don't have time this evening, but each of these taks, I feel, leads to the next one. They're all interlinked. And, although this is slightly tongue-in-cheek, I think they can be reduced to the acronym ELSA, E.-L.-S.-A., ELSA: Embrace dukkha, Let Go of grasping, Stop grasping, and Act. Do something, in other words: think, speak, physically act; get on with your work. If we think of the Four [Noble Truths, in brackets] in this way, we have a framework for living in this world, here and now.

ELSA can operate in any moment of our life. Every situation gives us the opportunity to embrace it with clarity, with understanding, to let go of our habitual reactivity, our dogmatic beliefs, our desires, our fears, to open up to a still, quiet, transparent space in which we somehow come to rest, even for a moment, and from that space, which is not conditioned by grasping, we can respond. We can say something, do something that comes from the depths of ourselves rather than from our habitual beliefs and opinions and our ego, basically. And that, I feel, captures the essential movement of the Dhamma. Again, we see here the contrast between a truth and believing in it as something essentially static, as opposed to a task, which is a constant embrace and response-an embrace of and a response to the condition of life as it presents itself to us right now. Whether that's going on within us, whether it's in a social environment, whether it's in a political environment, this offers us a framework or a template for living.

This is transcribed from "Truth and Violence," a public dharma talk Stephen Batchelor offered at Upaya 19 October 2011. Read the transcription of Part 1 of this talk here. Read Part #2 here. Read Part 3 here. Listen to the podcast of this complete talk here.

These talks, given by extraordinary Buddhist teachers such as Roshi Joan Halifax, Sharon Salzberg, Bernie Glassman, and many more, are offered to support your practice even if you live far away from Upaya.

Santa Fe Sangha Events

THURSDAYS (most), 9:20 am: Weekly Seminar, Upaya House living room - open to the public. Topic is usually related to the dharma talk of the evening before. To confirm that the seminar is happening that morning, please email temple@upaya.org.

SUNDAY, April 27: Dharma Discussion Group, Upaya House, 6:30 p.m. Please join Upaya's Local Sangha as we continue an exploration of the Five Buddha Families with a discussion of the Buddha family facilitated by Bob Jahner.. The group meets informally from 6:30-7 pm at Upaya House with tea and cookies, with the formal program running from 7- 8:30 pm. We encourage participants to start by joining the residents for the 5:30 zazen practice. All are welcome.

SUNDAY, April 27: Meditation Instruction, 3:00 p.m.An offering of temple etiquette and instruction in Zen forms for those who are new to meditation and practice at Upaya. There is no fee, but registration is recommended. Please contact temple@upaya.org or 505-986-8518 x21.

You are an important part of Upaya's community! Thank you for your participation, and for sharing this with anyone else who may be interested.

JOB OPPORTUNITY AT UPAYA: Part-time Maintenance

Upaya is currently looking for someone to administer general maintenance. This is a part-time position responsible for the daily operation of all buildings and campus of the Upaya Zen Center.Responsibilities

· Maintain maintenance office with plans, documents.

· Responsible to keep all buildings and grounds safe for all who visit.

· Work with residents and staff to determine facility needs, problems and projects and decide on corrective measures.

· Work with Business Manager on action steps to be categorized as work for outside contractors, residents or volunteers.

· Work with Business Manager on policies and procedures for residents & volunteers, and then assure compliance.

· Review billing of outside contractors, and submit to Business Manager with approval of payment.

· Supervise all work in workshop.

· Train resident maintenance person in work methods and procedures.

Benefit package to include paid holidays, sick and vacation days. Please submit cover letter and resume to resumes@upaya.org on or before May 9, 2014. Due to our small staff we would appreciate no telephone inquiries or personal visits.

CEUs and CNEs for 2014: Attention Therapists, Counselors, Social Workers, and Nurses

Upaya invites nurses, counselors, therapists, and social workers to attend our special retreats and trainings where CNEs and CEUs may be earned.

Calgary, AB, Canada: Calgary Contemplative End of Life Care Practice Group. For professionals and volunteers working with people who are dying. Second Monday each month at Hospice Calgary's Sage Center, 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Sit starts at 7 pm. For further information, contact laurie.lemieux@hospicecalgary.com

NEW: Westbury, Wiltshire, U.K. This new group will hold its first meeting on Sunday, October 27th from 3-5 pm at The East Wing, 35 Church Street, Westbury, Wiltshire. For more info, e-mail Jan Mojsa, janmojsa@googlemail.com.